Koepka Bloodies Marshal with Wayward Drive

Brooks Koepka has proven to be a force in major championships in recent years finishing in the top-10 six times in the last four years, capped off by his breakthrough victory at the U.S. Open in June. While he’s especially dialed in those four weeks out of the year, it’s easy to understand why some of his concentration seemed to wane on Thursday at Quail Hollow.

Playing the 16th hole — his seventh of the day — Koepka attempted to cut the corner on the first leg of The Green Mile. An overly aggressive line left his tee ball out to the right, landing amongst camera crews, volunteers and fans. Koepka’s ball ricocheted off of the head of a marshal, leaving the man woozy and on the ground.

While Koepka got a good break off the man’s head, bouncing back into the fairway, the experience of it all seemed to rattle Koepka, who pushed his second shot from 174 yards well right of the green.

“I felt terrible about it,” Koepka said, although he had not shouted the traditional warning of ‘fore’ following his drive.

“That’s never fun to walk up and see somebody, you just drilled them. I drilled him in the head, which is probably the worst part. To be honest with you, I felt like crap.

“He was laughing and joking when I was up there, kept telling me, “You got a good break.” I was like, well, I still feel like crap. But I got his information so I’ll probably reach out to him tonight and see how he’s doing. I’m sure he’s going to have quite a big headache.”

Koepka would bogey the hole and turn in even par before playing the front nine — his back nine — in 3-under par to end the day one shot off of the lead.

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